John Everett-Heath

Who is John Everett-Heath?

John Everett-Heath is an author, former civil servant, and a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. Everett-Heath was a military diplomat in Belgrade and, during his 13 years in the civil service, was concerned with Russia, Central Asia, and the Caucasus. He has lived in Cameroun, Cyprus, Italy, Kenya, Malaysia, Oman, USA, and Yemen.

His publications include the Oxford University Press's Concise Dictionary of World Place-Names, and "Place names of the world: historical context, meanings and changes" in which he shares his view that:

Place names are a window onto the history and characteristics of a country

In 2007 Oxford University Press was forced to suspend sale of, and pulp the remaining copies of, The Concise Dictionary, following complaints by local historians that comments made about Bangalore were wrong. The secretary to Karnataka's government department of Kannada and culture, I M Vittal Murthy, was quoted "We cannot tolerate the scant respect for Karnataka's history. We had written a letter ...asking them ...to withdraw the copies carrying wrong information,"